Yeasts of the genus Saccharomyces are commonly used in many agricultural food industries.
Nevertheless, each agricultural food industry utilizes Saccharomyces species in a very specialized manner for the production of fermented foods or drinks.
Thus, S. cerevisiae is used in bakery.
S. cerevisiae, S. carlsbergensis or S. uvarumare yeasts employed in beer production. S. uvarum is also used in cider making.
S. cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus, S. beticus and S. bayanus are well-known yeasts for wine fermentation.
S. rouxii is employed in the manufacture of soya sauces and also for rice miso.
S. boulardii is a yeast which was isolated from lychee fruits from Indochina back in the 1920s. Since 1962, S. boulardii has been used in Europe and other countries as a probiotic medicinal product having an antidiarrhoeal effect in man. Thus, S. boulardii forms the active principle of the pharmaceutical speciality Ultra-Levure, trade name of Laboratoires Biocodex (92 126--Montrouge, France).
Several patents teach us that S. boulardii is an effective medicinal product against some diseases of man: EP-A-0,149,579 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,590 for pseudomembranous colitis, EP-A-0,195,870 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,897 for amoebiasis.
S. boulardii has never been used in the production of fermented foods or drinks.